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Haiku

a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

And then I obeyed and wrote a damn haiku, based on a specific cultural belief of death and dying.

The African concept of death has many influences from modern Islam and Christianity, however, certain historic traditions and beliefs remain deep-seeded.

In many parts of African, people believe that they must prepare (and be prepared) properly for death. People also believe that in not ceremoniously following tradition creates risk for wandering, malevolent ghosts (Anderson, n.d.). In addition, certain African cultures believe that the dead should not be removed through a door, but through a hole in a wall, that will be quickly resealed. This is believed to assist the dead in remaining out of the world of the living (Anderson, n.d.).